What To Know About Full Stack Coding Bootcamps

Introduction

It has never been a better time to consider a career in coding and web development. Open job  roles are expected to grow 15% through 2026. As if that weren’t attractive enough, salary growth has been rising at a higher rate in the last three years than we’ve seen in the previous decade. 

The picture when it comes to full stack developers is even better. Entry-level full stack developers can often enjoy an average salary of $97,000, with some experienced full-stack developers earning $150,000 in addition to full benefits. This incredible job outlook, coupled with strong salary opportunities, is making entering a career as a full stack developer look more and more attractive. 

Full stack coding bootcamps are making these career switches possible. These are coding bootcamps that let you learn the basics of front end web development—the things that impact the look and feel of a digital experience—with back end web development—the nuts and bolts of a website or app that make them actually run. Offering students a way to quickly and effectively get in-demand skills under their belts, full stack coding bootcamps are a great way to help land your first job in the tech sector.  

What Is Full Stack Web Development

When individuals talk about being full stack developers, or taking a full stack bootcamp, what they’re referring to is tackling absolutely everything that it takes to bring a website or app experience to life. It combines front end web development, which refers to all the work that must be done to make mobile and web apps look good and function well across devices, with back end development, which is the behind-the-scenes foundations and processes that allow these digital experiences to even function.  

Let’s use an analogy to help bring clarity to what these components all mean. Consider a house. There are so many things that have to come together for a house to be a comfortable, livable place. Taking a look behind the walls you’ll find pipes, electrical and insulation. And of course, you have the foundation underneath it all. None of these are things you see on a day-to-day basis, but you need them to have a fantastic home. This behind-the-scenes territory is all the back end.  

That then leaves the front-end, all the things you actually see and get to interact with. As you walk through your home, this would be things like the paint colors, molding, faucets, and door handles. And, of course, the things that make your home have great curb appeal like siding and landscaping. The things that make you fall in love with a home and want to live in it are all front-end. 

Just like a great home needs to marry great foundation with great decorative elements, a great website or app needs both a strong front end and back end. You want a digital experience that looks great and attracts peoples’ attention, but then you want it to actually work well when they start using it. This marriage of front end and back end is at the heart of full stack development. It combines these two fundamental sides of development so you can build functioning and good-looking digital properties from scratch.  

Typical Terms You’ll Find In A Full Stack Coding Bootcamp 

Full stack coding bootcamps often start with teaching front end development first, largely because this aspect of web development is what people are most familiar with. Since front-end development encompasses the code impacting the look and feel of a site or app, you’ll generally be learning code that affects:  

• Responsive Design: Consider how many digital devices there are out there—desktops, tablets, phones—and the wide breadth of screen sizes within each one. You want to create web experiences that perform well no matter which device or screen size a user has, which is what responsive design is all about. Essentially, it means that you’re developing sites and apps that respond well or adapt seamlessly across devices so that your users have a fantastic experience no matter technology they are using.  

• User Experience: This term refers to a user’s emotions or attitudes when engaging with a particular product. It’s a broad-ranging term that covers everything from whether or not a product was enjoyable and easy to use to whether or not it actually accomplished what the user wanted. Front end development focuses on creating user experiences that are positive and effective.  

• User Interface: Often used in tandem with user experience, a user interface refers to the actual template or process used to make it easy for an individual to use a website or app. It generally tracks back to the steps a user must take to accomplish their goals.  

• Client-Side Scripting: A “client” is an individual user’s computer, tablet or phone. This means that client-side scripting, no doubt the most technical term on our front end development term list, refers to all of the code that takes place within the computer browser or mobile app that makes the experience function.  

At their core, these terms revolve around everything that must happen to give a user a website or app that they actually want to use. However, none of this is possible without a strong back end. Usually the second-half of a full stack coding bootcamp focuses on back end development, the foundational elements that must be in place for the front end to work. That’s why in the back end portion of a full stack bootcamp, you’ll learn about: 

• Server-Side Scripting: The counterpart to client-side scripting, server-side scripting refers to work that’s done on a central server to process information that ultimately goes to the end user, or the client. It’s extremely powerful as it allows you to highly customize a user’s experience based on a user’s background, access requirements and other details.  

• User Authentication: This is the process of confirming that an individual is actually who they say they are. As you can imagine, it’s a necessary capability when faced with needing to give certain types of users access to some resources but not others. Any time you log in to a website, online bank account, or social media site, user authentication is happening. 

• Data Architecture: This refers to policies or standards put in place which govern how data is collected, stored and used. It’s an especially complex area that helps organizations make stronger business decisions, ensures sensitive information is protected, and keep processes running efficiently. 

• Database Design: A subset of data architecture, database design determines what data must be stored and how different data elements work with each other. Strong database design means having the data available that an organization always needs, removing data redundancies, and structuring data in a way that makes it easy to execute queries and actions.  

Programming Languages & Tools Found In Full Stack Web Development Coding Bootcamps 

One of the challenging aspects of evaluating full stack coding bootcamps is making sense of the tools and languages they teach, and if they’ll be valuable for you in the long term. That’s one reason why it’s so important to know exactly what front end and back end development entail, and how they represent full stack development as a whole. Once you break down what each component is all about, you can start to look for coding bootcamps that include languages aligned with those tasks.  


First things first, take a look at what the coding bootcamp is offering to prepare you for the front end aspect of web development. To begin with, you might see some of the fundamental languages used across web development. Some bootcamps might require basic understanding of these ahead of time, while others may offer an upfront course to get up to speed on them first. These include:  

• HTML & CSS: Generally considered the building blocks of the web, these two languages let you create structured, formatted text while also giving you control over layout, colors, and everything you need to impact how content is shown to users. 

• JavaScript: JavaScript is the glue that holds CSS and HTML together. It’s what allows you to add interactive elements to websites and apps, and is behind creating fun, engaging games. 

With these fundamentals in place, a full stack coding bootcamp focused on a student’s long-term career success will likely also feature the following languages and tools to support front end mastery: 

• Bootstrap: This is a central repository of HTML, CSS and JavaScript code which is behind enabling responsive mobile experiences. Learning how to access and use this code library to its fullest means you’ll never need to create code from scratch. Instead, you can take advantage of pre-existing blocks of code. Of course, you’ll still need to customize the code for your particular needs.  

• React & React Native: React is a JavaScript library that is intended to help build functional user interfaces. It enables building dynamic digital experiences that don’t need to be reloaded time and time again, key when you consider that users expect websites and games to be fast. React Native is its mobile counterpart, letting you do everything React does but in the mobile realm so you can make apps accessible on major app stores.  

With the basics of front end development covered, a solid full stack bootcamp will then transition to the languages and tools that control the vast majority of back end experiences today. Well-structured full stack bootcamps will likely include the following tools and languages for this:  

• NodeJS: Remember the server-side scripting we just talked about? NodeJS lets you do just that so that websites and apps behave according to a user’s particular behavior. It enables database operations, user authentication, and application logic. 

• MongoDB: Websites and apps require collecting and using tons of data to run properly. MongoDB lets you store that data in flexible ways so that it’s easily accessible and allows digital experiences to run smoothly. 

And of course, there’s GitHub, a widely-use collaboration tool that allows individual developers to write unique batches of code and then merge it with the core, pre-existing code. It’s an unbelievably useful tool that allows teams of developers to work independently, but then combine their work into a product that works fluidly. You’ll see it used in both front and back end development which is why it’s often shown in full stack bootcamps.  

Creating A Full Stack Web Development Portfolio  

One thing to always look for in any coding bootcamp, full stack or otherwise, is the opportunity to build up a work portfolio. When it comes time to interview for your first full time role after your bootcamp, you’ll need a way to showcase to prospective employers that you have basic full stack skills. While a paper resume can say you have the skills, a digital portfolio is the key to actually showing that you have them. It lets you demonstrate the breadth of projects you’ve tackled, the types of languages you’ve learned and tools you know how to use, and it can even show how you debug and troubleshoot. 

A whole host of different types of projects comprise a strong full stack portfolio. Since full stack includes front and back end development, it should showcase projects from both development areas. For front end, it can include:  

• Responsive Page: A core feature of a good front end developer is being able to build sites and apps that perform well across screen sizes. That’s why showing that you can build a responsive page that works seamlessly across browsers and device types is a valuable project. It shows mastery over a skill employers expect you’ll have. 

• Simple JavaScript Game: The most basic-looking game still has a lot of nuance, from the basic user experience to data management. Showcasing a JavaScript game shows that you are able to put disparate pieces together to build a cohesive, interactive experience. 

• Basic Mobile App: Mobile development skills are key these days, which is why showing that you can build a really simple mobile app is a great way to demonstrate basic mastery of what it takes to build and design mobile experiences.  

With front end projects covered, you’ll also need a few back end projects to show that you have the potential to be a full stack developer. Some straightforward projects to show foundational back end skills include: 

• API Pulls: An API helps you pull data from one source and then place it in another location. Showing that you understand how to do this is a way to showcase command over database structures and data logic.  

• User Login Screen: A great project for a back end portfolio is to build a user login portal. This is often a core part of user authentication, and shows that you understand how to build data queries, authenticate information, and can leverage multi-field databases. 

Rest assured, no one will expect a portfolio with bells and whistles from a student that just graduated from a coding bootcamp. That wouldn’t be fair! Instead, employers are looking to see if you have a grounding in what it means to be a full stack developer. Having a portfolio, and selecting a coding bootcamp that makes portfolio-building a key part of its program, is a great way to do this and start getting your foot in the door with prospective employers.  

Getting A Job After A Full Stack Coding Bootcamp   

While it must be acknowledged that not every full stack coding bootcamp student is looking to become a developer, a large majority intend to switch careers after graduation, or are looking to the bootcamp to validate their interest in becoming a developer. As a result, you’ll often see coding bootcamps offer guarantees that graduates will find jobs upon completion or will get their money back. 

It sounds like a fantastic promise. But, looking at the fine print will show it can often be too good to be true. A few typical red flags to keep an eye on when even looking at guarantees are: 

• Weekly Job Application Submission: Some bootcamps require you to submit a baseline number of applications every week to even qualify for the guarantee. At first, it sounds reasonable. You should be making an active effort to get a new job. However, if you’re looking for a very particular type of role, or looking for a job in a smaller city or town, there may not be as many roles as the guarantee requires you apply for.  

• No Turning Down A Job: You may be looking for a certain job, or expect a market-rate salary for an offered role. However, if you are given a job offer that doesn’t meet those criteria, and you turn it down, you’ll no longer be guarantee eligible. And yes, this can even include turning down a job that has nothing to do with web development! 

• Internships Equal A Job: That’s right, some bootcamps will even say getting an internship is akin to getting a job. But internships are often unpaid, have definite end dates, and certainly don’t offer benefits. To get out of paying out on guarantees, however, some bootcamps will look at an internship you’ve earned and call it a day.  

If guarantee loopholes make these types of offers meaningless, what’s a prospective full stack coding bootcamp student to do to evaluate a bootcamp’s ability to help them get a job?  

First things first, look at the curriculum and compare it to entry-level web development job openings. If the jobs are asking for an understanding of languages and tools the bootcamp teaches, you’ll know the coding bootcamp has a curriculum focused on teaching in-demand skills. Next, does the coding bootcamp allow you to build a job portfolio? If so, you’ll know they don’t just want to teach you the right skills but also show you how to apply them in a way that will let prospective employers know what you can do. Lastly, does the coding bootcamp let you network with prospective employers? If so, then again, this is a great signal that the bootcamp is focused on your long-term career success.   

WANT TO LEARN MORE? For more on coding bootcamps in general, check out our Ultimate Guide To Coding Bootcamps.